Feminist Critical Approaches Research Articles

A feminist legal analysis of non-consensual sexualized deepfakes: contextualizing its impact as AI-generated image-based violence under EU law

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the legal contextualization of the generation of fake audiovisual sexual content based on replacing and shuffling facial or voice data using artificial intelligence (AI) technology without the previous consent, commonly known as ‘non-consensual sexualized deepfakes'. The legal analysis will be limited to examination of the impact of non-consensual sexualized deepfakes on the gender equality spectrum and gender-based violence context. For this reason, the analysis will be built upon the European AI Act – the applied legal framework when AI software is used – the European Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence (GBV Directive) – which criminalizes the generation of sexualized deepfakes – and the Digital Service Act (DSA) – the legislative framework regulating online platforms, where mostly sexualized deepfakes are distributed. To better understand how sexualized deepfakes are generated, we will examine their generation and detection techniques through a short overview from a technical lens. The methodology used is built on the feminist critical approach – based on the ‘King Kong’ theory and abolitionist feminism – to the doctrinal analysis of the relevant European legislation. After having captured the harms of deepfake technology, legal solutions will be provided through this cross-disciplinary perspective.

Feminist Critical Approaches to the Eighteenth-Century English Novel

ABSTRACT The relevance of the research is conditioned by the fact that though the traditional narrative of the eighteenth-century English novel was associated with male writers, such authors as Charlotte Smith, Frances Burney, and Jane Austen became increasingly authoritative in the genre. Feminism is a complex issue and causes numerous discussions. The leading methods for studying this problem are analysis, classification, comparison, induction, and deduction, which will help to identify and highlight literary and gender features in the eighteenth-century novel. The works of women authors were discovered, whose achievements were systematically hushed up; the main questions in the field of eighteenth-century gender studies are considered; the relationship between the English novel and gender differences is shown.

Re-centring and recovering knowledge about climate-friendly agriculture: Learning from a woman African indigenous knowledge holder

abstract Patriarchal capitalist colonisation has bestowed on the world civilisational crises, including climate change and the spread of virulent pandemics. The agri-food model, which has been moulded by the contours of the modern capitalist enterprise, is a key source of chemical pollution from artificial fertilisers, and air pollution from greenhouse gases. The consequent killing of soil and water biomes, and the warming of the planet from these pollutants, increases vulnerability of those who bear the brunt of socio-economic, gender and cultural inequity. We departed from the focus on vulnerable populations in climate change disasters, and adopted a feminist critical approach, by casting our gaze towards geo-epistemic Southern regions. In our qualitative research project, we sought intersectional solutions to climate change in the form of educational interventions. We tapped into the knowledge repository of one purposively selected woman African indigenous knowledge holder, who taught fifteen practising science teachers who were enrolled in an Honours degree about climate friendly agriculture. Bringing the voice of a woman African indigenous knowledge holder to the centre repositioned the locus of enunciation and generated a fertile Southern feminist context for collaboration. Teachers experienced hands-on learning under the guidance of the indigenous knowledge holder. Among other practices they used animal waste, which they worked into the soil, and hoes to manually turn soil, thereby limiting disturbance to the soil ecosystem. Teachers documented their learning in portfolios of evidence, and written reflections, which were subjected to content analysis. The careful use of manure from animals and limiting the use of fossil fuels in creating food gardens, were insights gained by the teachers. Hegemonic rules about who qualifies as a legitimate teacher in higher education and what can be admitted as legitimate scientific knowledge, were blurred. The woman who taught about how African indigenous knowledge can inform sustainable food production, contributed towards the building of epistemic justice within the broader social justice context. Through this intercultural dialogue teachers learned to teach about African medicinal plants, the advantages of crop rotation, as well as preparing soil for garden beds. Teachers embraced knowledge from the South and transcended curriculum boundaries.

Revolutionizing criticism: collage as feminist critical practice in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook (1962) and Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas (1938)

ABSTRACT In this paper, I argue that Doris Lessing's novel The Golden Notebook (1962) draws from and extends the feminist critical approaches of Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas (1938). Where previous critics like T.S. Eliot described the purpose of criticism as the establishment of absolute objectivity through the comparison of “facts” with “opinions,” Woolf and Lessing develop a counter-approach to criticism that I call “collage as feminist critical practice”: a critical approach grounded in subjective embodiment, juxtaposition, and endless, non-hierarchical particularity. Through her protagonist Anna Wulf and the narrative form of The Golden Notebook itself, Lessing adapts Woolf's critical methods and feminist insights about juxtaposed, embodied differences to realize material contingency as its own kind of critical and ethical “truth.”

Education as a Tool for Women Empowerment in Zaynab Alkali and Abubakar Gimba’s Selected Novels

The dominance of patriarchy as a cultural mainstay of the people and Islam as a religious philosophy and practice in northern Nigeria did not prioritise the education of the girl child until recently. The result of these is the diminished contribution of the woman to the welfare of northern Nigerian. This paper examines the plight of northern Nigerian woman and how education as a tool brings social development, empowers the woman to be an agent of change. The feminist critical approach to literature and Marxist literary theory are used as a tool for the textual assessment of Zaynab Alkali’s The Descendants and Abubakar Gimba’s Sacred Apples in this paper. Besides, many females do not have access to education in their community; this lack of access to educate the woman is the result of cultural, religious and economic factors. Furthermore, the paper reveals the importance of education to the woman, since no society progresses by the efforts of a segment of its population. The paper concludes that the emancipator power of education is a tool for social liberation, self-actualisation and development for the individual in particular and the society in general. It is the most important tool in addressing women problem in Nigeria, especially in the northern part.

Gibt es so etwas wie weibliche und männliche Werte? Versuch einer alltagssprachlichen Interpretation

Is there something as masculine and feminine values? Attempt of an everyday language approach
 The aim of the paper is to answer a question that has often been raised but not thoroughly explored, namely, whether there are masculine and feminine values. In axiology values are mostly considered in a gender-blind way, while in feminist critique, e.g., in difference feminism, there is a valorization of the feminine but a differentiated axiological consideration is not undertaken. By the use of the hermeneutic method of interpretation and linguistic analysis, as well as of an axiological and feminist critical approach, the paper will unfold some ambiguities, and respectively the possible answers of the question, by showing the crucial importance of the value system, which defines the order of discourse and thus legitimizes or puts in question the sociocultural order.

Closedness and openness in Tehran; a feminist critique of Sennett

This paper uses a feminist approach to geography to critique the theory of ‘open city’ proposed by Richard Sennett in his 2018 book, Building and Dwelling, which suggests a series of design interventions that when applied to cities can lead to an increase in sociability, complexity and tolerance of difference. Tehran is employed as a case study to examine whether open city theory is yet another Western formulation that is only applicable in democratic contexts. Considering Tehran’s top-down, oppressive, and authoritarian setting, it is seen here as a context in which the closedness and lack of active urban life in its streets and other public places are not only the result of architectural and planning schemes inherited from the ‘functional city’, as open city theory suggests, but instead are the result of rigid, top-down control mechanisms applied by the authorities. Therefore, based on feminist critical approaches such as meaning-in-context, and considering the discriminatory politics faced by women in their use of and access to public spaces in Iran, I challenge open city theory by suggesting that closedness, and its opposite, openness, are terms too charged with a Western sense of urbanisation. Instead, by examining the meaning, practicality and temporality of some of Sennett’s design interventions in Tehran, I suggest other potential ways that openness might occur; not through design, however, but among people and the solutions they find to overcome closedness in this city.

Cross-Cultural Encounters: A Feminist Perspective on the Contemporary Reception of Jane Austen in China

This article examines the changing nature of Austen's reception in China since the 1950s, in particular the growth of feminist critical approaches to her work among contemporary Chinese scholars. Among Austen's works, Pride and Prejudice has remained at the centre of scholarly and popular attention and has had a major impact on Chinese readers’ view of Austen as a feminist writer. Anglo-American scholarship commonly considers Austen's feminism in relation with her contemporary Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist thought. Unfamiliar with Wollstonecraft, Chinese scholars and general readers tend to read Austen rather differently, and their exploration of her engagement with ‘the woman question’ is instead closely connected with the development of Marxism and gender studies in contemporary China.

The Gender Equality Struggles in The Novel of Perempuan Berkalung Sorban and Gadis Pantai

The struggling of gender equalities was discussed often in various disciplines and discourses, a part is in literature. This paper analyzes the gender equalities struggle in two novels: Abidah El-Khalieqy’s Perempuan Berkalung Surban and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Gadis Pantai. El-Khalieqy is a woman who has runs a pesantren “educational institute with a Moslem background” and Toer is a man who favors a nationalistic-socialist ideology, with an emphasis on literary realism. A literary -sociological and a feminist critical approach were used in analyzing both novels. The result of the analysis shows that gender struggle in the novel Perempuan Berkalung Sorban is caused by male oppression of women based on the explanation and interpretation of very patriarchal verses from the Al Qur’an (Islam religion). The gender struggle in novel Gadis Pantai is caused by male oppression of women based on feudalistic traditions, the woman as private property of men. Being placed in this feudalistic position, women then respond with struggles for equality.

Chaos ruined the children's sleep, diet and behaviour: Gendered discourses on family life in pandemic times.

This study adopts a feminist critical approach to explore how parenting was understood during the COVID‐19 restrictive measures in Iceland. Iceland has been known as a front runner in gender equality, and women’s participation in the workforce is high. Data consists of 97 stories that were collected during the peak of COVID‐19 in April 2020 using the story completion method. The stories were thematically analysed. Most of the participants were university‐educated women. The themes demonstrate the power of neoliberal discourses in framing parenting. Parenting during a pandemic, especially mothering, is constructed as an overwhelming project that requires detailed organization and management. There is also resistance to neoliberal governmentality through redefining successful parenthood. Furthermore, the gendered nature of domestic work is questioned, especially the traditional, inactive father who prioritizes his own needs only to fail comically in the domestic sphere. The study contributes to our understanding of gendered parenthood in neoliberal, pandemic times.

WOMEN INDEPENDENCE IN JANE AUSTEN’S SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AS A FEMINISM STUDY

This research paper entitled Women Independence in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility as a Feminism Study. This research paper aimed to show the form of women independence of Elinor Dashwood and Marianne Dashwood as the main characters in Sense and Sensibility novel. This research is using feminist critical approach and applies Simone de Beauvoir’s theory with her book The Second Sex that was published in 1949. This research used qualitative research methods from which the data are taken from books and online sources. Data is classified into main data which is taken from the book itself and supporting data which is taken from online sources that related to this paper. Beside analyzing the forms of women independence, the researcher also analyzed the causes of women independence and the effects of women independence towards the main characters. The novel presents the independence of thought and behavior of women in the 19th century. After all data have been collected and analyzed, it concludes that the causes of the independence of the main characters is their parents, the forms of their independence is Elinor and Marianne Dashwood can prove that they have a good attitude, good knowledge and ability in the world of art although they are just from the middle social class and the effects is they have a positive and negative effect of their independence and get some obstacles of it. However, after overcoming all their conflicts they finally found what they really wants in life and they can live happily.

Female Friendship, Idealisation and the “Need” For Violence In Crush

This article develops a feminist critical approach capable of responding to the uniquely pessimistic portrayal of female friendship in Crush (Alison Maclean 1992, NZ). Crush questions the possibility of supportive or empathetic relationships, disclosing instead a powerful feminist “need” for violence, between women. This poses a challenge for feminist theory which has yet to be fully understood (it is the first aim of this article to remedy this). Secondly, the article uncovers the same pessimism at the centre of Melanie Klein's psychoanalytic theories of idealisation, demonstrating the “negativity” of Klein's work and its value for feminist approaches to cinema spectatorship.

Post-War Women's Writing in German: Feminist Critical Approaches

Post-War Women's Writing in German: Feminist Critical Approaches

“From One Voice A Chorus”: Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 1860 Address to the New York State Legislature

This paper argues for a broadening of the critical debate over text and context as a means of constructing a feminist approach to public address criticism. Combining a close reading of Stanton's address with socio-historical analysis, it argues that Stanton's strategy for illuminating the hidden stories of women's lives offers a model for this feminist critical approach. The essay traces the tremendous contribution of the often unseen work that supports and furthers social change, and in doing so advocates an approach to the study of men's and women's public address that recognizes the significance of collaboration and collective achievements.

Postwar Women's Writing in German: Feminist Critical Approaches

Chapter 1. Reading Women's Writing: Feminist Critical Approaches C. Weedon Chapter 2. Women's Writing in Occupies Germany 1945-1949 F. Meyer Chapter 3. Women's Writing in the 1950s and 1960s F. Meyer Chapter 4. The Early Novels of Ruth Rehmann F. Meyer Chapter 5. Women's Writing 1968-1980 C. Rapisarda Chapter 6. Women's Writing of the 1980s and 1990s M. Littler Chapter 7. Original Differentiation: the Poetics of Anna Duden J. Bossinade Chapter 8. Searching for Intercultural Communication: Emine Sevgi A-zdamar, a Turkish Woman Writer in Germany I. Neubert Chapter 9. Women Writers in the GDR 1945-1989 E. Kaufmann Chapter 10. Development in East German Women's Writing since Autumn 1989 E. Kaufmann Chapter 11. Reading Christa Wolf C. Weedon Chapter 12. Postwar Austrian Women Writers A. Fiddler Chapter 13. Reading Ingeborg Bachmann E. Boa Chapter 14. Reading Elfriede Jelinek A. Fiddler Chapter 15. Women's Writing in German-speaking Switzerland C. Flitner Afterword C. Weedon Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index

Post-war women's writing in German: feminist critical approaches

Post-war women's writing in German: feminist critical approaches

Poetry of mourning: the modern elegy from Hardy to Heaney

From Langston Hughes's lynch poems to Sylvia Plath's father elegies, modern poetry has tried to find a language of mourning in an age of mass death, religious doubt and forgotten ritual. For this reason, Jahan Ramazani argues, the elegy, one of the most ancient of poetic genres, has remained one of the most vital to modern poets. Through readings of elegies, self-elegies, war poems and the blues, Ramazani aims to enrich our critical understanding of a wide range of poets, including Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, W.H. Auden, Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney. He also interprets the signal contributions to the American family elegy of Robert Lowell, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Sexton, John Berryman, Adrienne Rich, Michael Harper and Amy Clampitt. Finally, he suggests analogies between the elegy and other kinds of contemporary mourning art - in particular, the AIDS Memorial Quilt and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Grounded in genre theory and in the psychoanalysis of mourning, Ramazani's readings also draw on various historical, formal and feminist critical approaches. This book is intended for anyone concerned with the psychology of mourning or the history of modern poetry.

Preface

PREFACE One of the joys of being editor is that you get to be first to read the book. We think Women in German Yearbook d is a good read. Having chosen the articles for this volume simply because they were the best rather than according to a prearranged topic, we were delighted with the many unanticipated points of convergence that we discovered while debating different versions of our table of contents. There is stunning variety in the pieces collected here, which span German literary history from the middle ages to the present and treat canonical as well as noncanonical literature, popular as well as "high" culture, male as well as female authors—and a correspondingly diverse array of generic forms. A wide range of feminist critical approaches is evident as well. We have chosen to highlight some of the ways in which these articles resonate accordantly or discordantly with each other and thus reflect ongoing dialogue as well as incipient debates among feminist Germanists. The first three contributions, each employing a different approach to feminist analysis, are connected by a concern for how and why women's bodies and aspects of female sexuality have been thematized in works of canonical literature. In a feminist reading of Kleist's Erdbeben in Chili, Marjorie Gelus aims to recover what has been suppressed—the representation of the female body in one of its most mundane functions, birth—both in the story itself and in interpretations that are grounded in theory favoring abstraction. Vanessa Van Ornam investigates Renaissance theories of female infertility in order to shed light on Grimmelshausen's choice of a sexually active and orgasmic but barren heroine in Coltrasene; she argues that the work conveys an anti-war message that has heretofore been overlooked. M.R. Sperberg-McQueen, using Elaine Showalter's concept of women's literature as double-voiced discourse and drawing on insights from recent research on rape and incest, offers speculative reinterpretations of three plays by Hrotswitha von Gandersheim. We expect our readers will have strong reactions to these intrepid new readings that seek to make visible the sexual ideology underlying the literary works. ? Women in German Yearbook 8 Several contributions deal directly or indirectly with questions that inevitably come up in the study of noncanonical literature, especially literature by women: problems of nomenclature, traditional periodization, and aesthetic valuation as well as the question of a feminist literary canon, and, of course, the categories that feminists have used to frame their analyses. Sara Lennox reviews the feminist reception of Ingeborg Bachmann and the emergence, by the mid-1980s, of a "feminist Bachmann canon." She argues that the dominant feminist approaches to interpreting Bachmann's prose works in effect dictated what questions feminists could ask in studying this author and suggests that this may explain why several self-identified feminists subsequently produced studies of Bachmann in which gender did not figure as a category of analysis. Maria-Regina Kecht provides an introduction to and interview with Austrian writer Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch, a former Germanistin who published her first work of fiction in 1985. Kecht argues that Mitgutsch, who acknowledges her literary debt to Bachmann but neither calls herself a feminist nor emulates artistic strategies often associated with feminist literature, nevertheless succeeds in representing a specifically female perspective on reality and in depicting authentically female experience. At first glance, Mitgutsch's disclaimers—e.g., "meine Werke sind nicht feministisch"—may appear to be merely the well-known and understandable reluctance of creative writers to be forced into categories; yet the questions raised by Lennox and other contributors to this volume challenge us to look at such disclaimers with new eyes. How our feminist agendas affect our interpretation and evaluation of women's writing is also central to Susanne Kord's reexamination of the reception of nineteenth-century dramatist Caroline Pichler, whose prodigious literary output and numerous extra-domestic activities contradicted the conservative message to women that she expounded publicly and in print. Kord argues that Pichler's work has not been evaluated on its real merits, either by traditional literary critics or by feminists in the twentieth century. The feminist réévaluation of "earlier" literature by German women writers...

Feminine Historicizing in the "romancero novelesco"

Only recently, with the revival of serious scholarly interest in oral and other non-written cultural materials and with the establishment of strong feminist critical approaches, has the heretofore largely unexamined dimension of women and oral poetry begun to be studied.1 In the field of the orally-transmitted Hispanic ballad, this is also true. Early studies were concerned primarily with the historical and philological aspects of the genre; later, the geographical and typological coordinates of the ballads and the phenomenon of change and variation were stressed. In the past few years, the application of narratological and semiotic approaches has proved to be crucial for the development of a poetics of the romancero.2 Yet, with all this, the essential issue of women in the romancero has remained a secondary and marginal critical concern, and when confronted, then only as a consequence of the basically female-centred nature of the material itself. Of the few articles which have dealt explicitly with this ...

“So young and so untender?”: Ophelia and the power of obedience

Summary This reading of the woman's part in Shakespearean tragedy explores the extent to which the role of the passive heroine sexualises a critical conflict in the fabric of Jacobean society. Models of submissive femininity in Elizabethan and Jacobean courtesy manuals provide an exaggerated version of Bakhtin's description of the dialogic process, in which the meaning of a conversation is understood in the context of the hearer's conceptual environment. This process is echoed in feminist critical approaches to Shakespearean tragedy, which reject the silence and passivity of the heroine as symptomatic of a destructive male vision of feminine virtue.